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Zoo adventure for Year 7s

 

On Tuesday, the Year 7s went happily on a journey to the zoo to find out about the ecosystems and the adaptations of animals. We surely found out new stuff we didn’t know from the educators, and of course we had a lot of fun seeing all the animals!

First, the teachers split us up into our separate parent helper groups before we took the bus to the zoo. The educators then introduced themselves, explained the rules and told us what we were going to do for the day. There were two sessions: Being with the educators and learning about the native bush, animals and its adaptations, and roaming around the zoo with our teacher or assigned parent.

During the time we roamed around the zoo, the parents asked us, whenever we visited each enclosure, what the animals were and what their adaptations were. We ended up going and visiting animals from around the world – from Africa to Australia. We ate our morning tea and lunch while we were on the walk – and got a chance to play at the playground as well!

When the time came, we went back to the meeting area to meet our educators, who told us what we were going to learn during this education lesson. The educators then took us to three different places and briefed us on what animals live there, why they are native to the New Zealand Bush, and what adaptations they have. We went to three different places – one full of reptiles and one so unique it was believed that it was from the Jurassic times, a dark room where the Ruru (Morepork) and the Kiwi were found, and lastly, a big enclosure where the most beautiful trees, flowers and birds were located, including the Kauri and Tui.

When it was time to go, we met up back at the big elephant near the Africa enclosure, and that’s where we wrapped things up and said, “Thank You!” to the educators and staff of Auckland Zoo and took the bus back to school. It was truly a wonderful experience, and I recommend that you visit this amazing place sometime.

Jermaine Daclan